Lost

Today is the 10th of September.
I just realised that.
I also realised from the dates shown in my blog that I started blogging on 10th of August.
I then realised that this is my 30th post.
After all these realisations I am in awe that I have been (taking an average) posting everyday!
And I thought I wouldn’t have anything to blog about! Ha! - Misconception.

But this post is not about how wonderful a blogger I am – it is about how I almost always manage to get myself lost.

My sense of direction… well, I don’t have much of a sense of direction.
Tell me about a place I have been to and my imagination starts working:
- I can tell you how the place looks
- I can tell you how the place smells
- I can tell you how the place feels
- I can tell you how the place sounds
- I can tell you how the place tastes (wtf?!)
- But I can never, never-ever, never-ever-ever tell you how to get there unless it is within my line of sight (and I am short sighted!)

I have gotten lost more than a million times – and that is not an exaggerated statement. Some of my visits to the ‘lost land’ have been more memorable than others.

Two years ago:
It was my second day of clinical posting in the District Government Hospital. On my first day I had been asked to leave since I got late. The reason for being late was surprisingly not because I had overslept. It was because the goddamn hospital was a maze!!! I had spent half an hour trying to find the ward I was posted in. This was why I was late; this was why I had gotten ‘kicked out’ of class. But on the second day I was determined to get it right. I knew where I had to go. I knew everything about the ward, except how to get there. I started off on my ‘amazing race’ one hour in advance. I asked for help from every second person I saw – which resulted in me changing my direction after every second step I took. After half an hour (not exaggerated) I realised two things:
1) I was going in circles because I passed the same stupid board in some godforsaken language at least ten times!
2) I looked like I just got off a three hour tiring workout.
I sat. I sat for 15 minutes hoping the ward would jus appear in front of me. I sat hoping I could just tell something funny and be transported to where I was supposed to be.
And then it happened.
I saw a friend!
She took me by hand and dropped me off at my posting – my guardian angel!
She did that for all 45 days of my posting in that ward.
And believe me I still do not know how to get there!

One year ago:
We were at an inter college competition in CMC, Vellore.
We included eight guys from my college and me.
I overslept on the second day. I had to get to a competition I was supposed to participate in at 9:30 am. It was 8:30 am when I woke up. I got out of my temporary abode before 9:00, now I had to find where the auditorium was.
I walked and walked and walked.
I searched and searched and searched.
Finally I got to the canteen – time for breakfast!
I had breakfast and bumped into a fellow college mate. If there is one person on Earth who has a worse sense of direction than me – it’s him.
It was 9:30 am already, but since all the events always began late, we had time.
We started walking in circles and we knew we were walking in circles, but we didn’t have a choice. We even considered getting a spool of thread to mark where we are going, but then since we were going in circles we decided it wouldn’t really help.
Finally we asked a volunteer (they were a scarce race!) where the auditorium was. Turned out to be the big building we were walking around for the past half an hour.
We never talked about this incident much after that.

Today:
My friends have all gone home – thanks to the festival called Onam. I had to get work done. I had to get some cloth and then go to the tailor. I knew exactly where to I had to go. I started walking at 4:30 pm.
I walked to the cloth store – that is when it all started going wrong.
They did not have what I wanted. They always do – but today, when I am walking alone, they don’t!
I ask them where I can get what I need and walk on. Fifteen minutes at a brisk pace and I am not entirely sure where I am. Then all hell broke loose.
It started raining.
It started raining cats and dogs. I walked almost completely drenching myself before I found shelter. And all I could think all along was about the three colourful, beautiful umbrellas in my room – bought one every year in Mangalore, used none till date.
Once the rain stopped I noticed I was in a cloth shop – yes, it took me that long to realise it. I asked them what I wanted and they had it. I bought it.
And surprise!! Two of my college mates come along. I talk to them for ten minutes (at least five minutes person) and I walk on. It took me another five minutes to remember I was lost and by then it was too late – I couldn’t find the cloth shop or my college mates anywhere. I cursed myself for not asking them, when I could, where in the world I was!!! I remember taking a lot of turns and finally I just stopped trying.
I decided I had reached ‘lost land’, again.
I walked to an auto rickshaw told where I wanted to go. Barely a minute in the rickshaw and I reach. 13 bloody rupees (minimum charge in Mangalore) down the drain thanks to my sense of direction. I went to the tailor and walked back.
I didn’t lose my way.

I’m tired now.
I am tired after walking the distance of almost the whole of Karnataka in a 10 metre radius.
I am tired of me being lost almost every time I try not to be.
I am tired of my lamentable sense of direction which always seems to take me in circles.

Conclusion:
I have now decided to always take the path which I think wrong, maybe then I’ll reach somewhere!